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MEMORIAL OB^ HON. CHARLES ALLEN. 




M E M O R I A L 



HON. CHARLES ALLEN, 



from I)t!3 €I)iIDrcn. 



f 



CAMBRIDGE : 

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

1S70. 




E 340 




IH^ 



A MEMORIAL SERMON 

TREACHED BEFORE THE 

SECOXD CONGREGATIOXAL SOCIETY f.V WORCESTER, 

ON THK LIFE AND CHARACTER OF 

HON. CHARLES ALLEN, 

September 12, 1S69. 



By ALONZO hill. 




Oh ! for that hidden strength, which can 
Nerve unto death the inner man ! 
Oh ! for thy spirit, tried and true, 

And constant in the hour of trial ; 
Prepared to sufler or to do 

In meekness and in self-denial. 







MEMORIAL SERMON. 



" An(i they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; 
and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and 
ever." — Daniel xii. 3. 



" T ISTEN to the holy stars. Listen in the still night. 
They watch while the world sleeps. By their 
light and their beaut}^ and their vastness, by that eleva- 
tion of theirs, which is congenial to spirit and addresses 
itself to spirit, they' will speak to the soul who watches 
with them, and draw it upwards to themselves when orb 
hangs above orb and the small and shaded earth may 
be for a time forgotten." 

This is the language of a refined commentator on the 
words which I have chosen for my text. - It gives 
glimpses of the lustre with which the wise shine, and 



12 Memorial of yudgc Charles Allen. 

reveals the moral splendor of those who, by their intel- 
lectual superiority, their spiritual culture, their consci- 
entious fidelity to duty, and powers of persuasion, inform 
the ignorant, arouse the sluggish, and turn many to 
righteousness. They are the stars in this lower firma- 
ment, and, by their light and beauty and vastness, speak 
to the soul that watches, and draw it upwards towards 
themselves, and kindle within it more than earthl}' aspi- 
rations. God bestows no greater gifts on the genera- 
tions of men than those who are wise and put forth a 
spiritual power, and have influence on the thought, feel- 
ings, and arts of their time. 

Only a few months ago, this broad aisle was occupied 
by a class of men, as wise and intelligent, as true and 
honored and trusted, as have ever been found in one 
New-England congregation. They were the stay of the 
parish. They were the ornament of the city. They 
added dignity to the Commonwealth. They brought 
wisdom to the councils, and support to the institutions, 
of the country. Here, in this their religious home, they 
were numbered with us in the vigor of their 3'outh, and 
lent their influence in the maturity of their riper years, 
encouraging our hearts and strengthening our hands in 



Memorial Sermon. 13 



the work that we were called on to do. But, one by 
one, they have passed away, and left vacant the places 
which they so long held. One b}' one, they have gone 
on to the gardens of the graves, and left us to linger here 
a little longer. And now, since we met, another familiar 
form, — familiar, but not fresh in the gathering of this 
assembly, — the Hon. Charles Allen, amid this sum- 
mer luxuriance has led on in the solemn procession to 
join the goodly company, — to join the faithful, the de- 
voted, the loved, and revered in the place of their rest. 
And I have come this morning to interpret, with what 
clearness and strength I may, this event, and bring home 
its great lesson to the heart, — I, who have been his 
companion for so man}' years, have been familiar with 
his walk and conversation, and have received so many 
tokens of his confidence, — I, who have known him, not 
only as most of you have done, in the weakness of his 
gathering age and the overshadowing of his noble facul- 
ties, but in the strength of his manhood and the full 
devotion of his large endowments, the brilliant career of 
his activity and usefulness. I have come, not to eulo- 
gize him; for he, of all men, had no tolerance of the 
language of empty praise: not to speak of the deadj for 



14 Memorial of Judge Charles Allen. 

they only are dead who have passed awa}' and left no 
memorials behind, — I have come to speak of life, not 
death; for he only lives whose influence still survives, 
and who has already reached that other life, so incon- 
ceivably grand that it hath not entered into the heart of 
man to conceive what God hath prepared for them, who, 
having kept the faith and obtained the promises, have 
already entered on its enjoyment. 

Let me, then, for your sake and my own, attempt to 
recall the image of our friend as he appeared to us who 
have been his contemporaries, and note, as briefly as I 
may, what in him and in his life was worth}' of being 
gathered up for grateful remembrance, and individual 
encouragement and help. I do this the more heartily 
because he was one of us, and his character and life 
belong to us of this community and this congregation. 
In his boyhood, he ran these streets when they were 
few and our now crowded city was only a sparse 
country village : our home was his home, and he was 
trained in the schools and churches which have opened 
their doors to us and shed upon us their sacred, benign 
influence. 

Charles Allen, son of the late Hon. Joseph Allen, 



Memorial Sermon. 15 

one of the most upright and respected of our citizens, 
for many )'ears the clerk of the court and an honored 
magistrate, was born in this city, Aug. 9, 1797, and would 
accordingly have been just seventy-two years old on the 
day of his burial. The beginning and the end appear on 
the same leaf in the calendar. His grandmother was 
a sister of the revolutionary patriot, Samuel Adams, — 
a genuine woman, full of patriotic tire and the traditions 
of the great times in which she had lived. With such 
blood in his veins and such fresh traditions in his mem- 
ory, great men and great deeds made earl}' familiar to 
him, he could not fail to develop a strongly marked 
character. His mother was a feeble woman, but of com- 
manding ability; and at twelve he was sent from his 
home to Leicester Academy, and was there prepared for 
Yale College, and entered that institution at the early 
age of fourteen. Here, after he had spent only a single 
year, he took up his connections under circumstances 
which revealed the delicateness of his sensibility, but 
reflected no dishonor upon him, and entered upon the 
studv of the law in the office of our townsman, Samuel 
M. Burnside, Esq., then one of the most laborious and 
thoroughly read lawyers in the county. At the age of 



1 6 Memorial of Judge Cliarles Allen. 

twenty-one, having been admitted to the Bar, he opened 
an office in the neighboring town of New Braintree; 
where, by a successful practice of six years, he made 
himself familiar with the forms of legal procedure, 
studied the principles of his profession, and won a large 
place in the confidence and affections of the people of 
the county. In 1834, he returned to this city, and made 
it ever afterwards his home. lie entered into partner- 
ship with the late Governor Davis; and, in the life-long 
practice of his profession, in unrelaxing devotion to its 
pursuit, and a thorough comprehension of its principles, 
reached at length that eminence which his contempo- 
raries accorded, and which history will assign him. 
For I think that, if, during many years, the question had 
been asked. Who was the ablest lawyer in this commu- 
nity, the acutest, and best furnished .'' the answer of our 
people would have been, the man whose name is on 
our lips, and whom we commemorate to-day. And, 
when this question was put, twenty-five 3'ears ago, to 
those on whom devolved the privilege and dut}' of 
appointment to the highest offices in the Common- 
wealth, they were unanimous in returning the same 
reply. They offered him a seat on the bench of the 



Memorial Sermon. 17 



Supreme Court; and, when he refused to accept that, 
bestowed upon him that of Chief-Justice of the Superior 
Court, — an office, in his estimation, with a single ex- 
ception the highest in the State. That highest, it is 
said, he was also invited to fill; for it was the expressed 
wish of the late eminent Chief-Justice Shaw, so long at 
the head of our Judiciary, that he should be appointed 
his successor. But he was, at length, chosen for another 
work, — a most arduous and responsible service; and, 
that we may know how wise was the selection and how 
admirably he discharged his duties, we have only to 
open the published Reports of the Supreme Court, and 
learn how constantly, almost without exception, his 
decisions in the lower courts are there confirmed. 

A lawyer, he stood before us as one of the most 
accomplished in New England. Largely endowed by 
the Creator, his intellect, broad in its grasp, clear in its 
perceptions, intense in its activit}', and eminently sound 
in its logical conclusions, was just of a character to 
enlist his attachments and make him eminent in his life- 
long profession. He was successful beyond most men 
in its practice. Such was his insight, his skill, and his 
power of persuasion, that they who had once committed 



i8 Memorial of Judge Charles Allen. 

to him their cause, felt that he had said and done in 
its behalf all that could be said and done; and if they 
had failed to obtain their suit, it was right that they 
should. For if we comprehended him aright, he was 
not the man to count his success by the number of ver- 
dicts which he obtained in favor of his clients, right or 
wrong, but by what he had been able to do for the sup- 
pression of evil and the vindication of truth and justice. 
Who among us ever maintained a deeper reverence for 
the majesty and sanctity of the law and the rights of 
humanity, — the law which guides the course of God 
himself, and before which man must prostrate himself 
in the dust, the conscience bow in awful respect, the 
brain lay aside its cunning, and the heart forget its 
tenderness ? They who lived here a quarter of a cen- 
tury ago, saw Judge Allen in his palmier days, before 
sickness and age had come upon him, and can recall the 
manly form, the capacious brow, the thrill of his tones, 
and the sharpness of his rebukes, can alone comprehend 
something of his reverence for legal authorit}' and the 
amount of public confidence that was reposed in him. 
How would his lips cm^l and the withering sarcasm rise 
on his tongue when he detected the prevarication, the 



Memorial Sermon. 19 

mean sophistry, and saw legal forms employed to ac- 
complish an act of injustice! In his view the law was 
the supreme science, its profession a noble profession, 
and he pursued its study and practised its principles 
with the same revering devotion he would study and 
practise the rules of right-living, which lie at the foun- 
dations of civil society, settle its discordant claims, and 
hold it together. I repeat it: the friend whom we have 
recently followed to the grave took rank among the 
ablest and most conscientious in his profession in the 
Commonwealth. 

There is another public relation in which we must 
contemplate him. Born only ten years after the adop- 
tion of our Constitution, he studied it, he detected earl}^ 
its acknowledged inconsistencies, and took a leading 
part in exposing them, and in the attempt to adjust the 
wrong which had been committed on the rights of 
humanity. A crisis had come in the history of our 
country in which the injustice of slavery — embodied in 
our institutions, recognized, vindicated, and spreading — 
was beginning to be felt, its subtle power beginning to 
awaken apprehension, and the great effort beginning 
to be made to shake it off, — at least to limit its further 



20 Alemorial of yudge Charles Allen. 

spread, and save the land from the awful curse. No 
period in all our annals has been more momentous and 
full of peril; no period that demanded clearer insight, 
a more resolute purpose, and a nobler spirit of self- 
sacrifice, than the ten years that preceded the outbreak 
of the late civil war. A day of darkness had come 
down upon us, and thick darkness covered the people, 
and only fitful gleams of light shone through the pall. 
One of those tremendous epochs had come which only 
now and then have appeared in the world's long history, 
when the great principles of freedom and justice were 
to be vindicated, and the political destinies of the coun- 
try to be settled for all time: the momentous question 
was to be determined, whether we should be governed 
by a slave aristocracy who had grown rich by the toil 
of those who could not possess, and proud and impe- 
rious by habits of unlicensed rule, or by a liberty-loving 
people who should frame their own laws, enjo}' the op- 
portunities of self-improvement without hinderance, and 
be permitted to share the common inheritance with all 
of every tribe and name and color whom they might 
choose to welcome. An awful crisis had come, a pause 
in the nation's movements, a silence as before the 



Memorial Sermon. 21 



bursting of the storm, — and another great step in the 
nation's history was to be taken. The nation's destiny 
was now to be determined, just as was that of the 
English nation two centuries before, when it heaved 
as with the earthquake, and the low-roofed hovel and 
the princely palace shook, and men started up from fens 
and fields and crowded cities in defence of the right, 
and one king was broutrht to the block and another 
driven in dismay from his kingdom. Then the lawless 
power and insane acts of sovereigns were set against 
the inborn privileges of the people, and the liberties of 
the nation sorely imperilled. As I read the story of 
those days of earnest deliberation and solemn council, 
of strife and bloodshed, so crowded with apprehensions, 
so darkened by disaster, so triumphant at last, there 
rises up before me the image of one man, pre-eminent 
amid the multitude of familiar forms and faces, his 
countenance expressing invincible firmness, and his 
speech inspiring unconquerable energy, and his hand 
raised amid the striving of his neighbors and friends, 
and his blood trickling down upon the lane that led to 
his own home, he doing the work of a thousand. The 
name of Hampden was household in those terrible 



2 2 Memorial of Judge C/iarlcs Allen. 

times, and is familiar to us to-day. So in our own 
latest revolution when a new era was opening, and 
men of clear mind and firm faith and unshrinking cour- 
age were needed, — men who could leave father and 
mother, and wife and children, and cleave to the right, 
— men who would speak and act out their deepest 
convictions, though old associations and life-long com- 
panionships and the hearts' friendships must be rent 
and cast aside, and they must be judged false and 
perverse, and henceforth tread a solitary way, I know 
of no one in the great community who won a higher 
name and held a nobler place in the regards of men 
for clear discernment, for well-sustained integrity, for 
fidelity to settled convictions of duty, for the manV 
utterance that leaves a lasting impression behind, and 
for the obstacles which he was instrumental in raising 
in the way of the base, selfish power that had arisen and 
was seeking to sweep over the land and control the des- 
tinies of this people, than the simple, unpretending man 
whom we have so often met in our streets, and whom 
we have so lately followed to his burial. In the days of 
his strength, he possessed a magnetic personal influence; 
and then there were those who trusted and revered 



Memorial Sermon. 



23 



him. And if there were those also, in those times of 
strife and angry debate, who misunderstanding were 
aroused and spoke reproachiully of him; if under a 
sense of personal injustice and public wrong, his eye 
would sometimes flash, and his nerve would tremble, 
and words of bitterness would fall from his lips which 
left a sting behind, — it is not to be forgotten that the 
patriot leader whose blood was running in his veins was 
a man of deep sensibility, and ardent and keen in his 
expressions; and when the deeds of pett}- office-holders 
and tyrannical governors were brought freshly to his ears 
would utter the language of withering rebuke, that led 
Hutchinson to complain of his obstinacy and light 
esteem for the servants of the king, and awoke the 
scorn and indignation of the whole city. But we now 
forget the bitter sarcasm of Samuel Adams, and remem- 
ber only the words uttered in his loftier and serener 
moods. We forget the tones that engendered passion 
and stirred up the people to mutiny, and remember only 
how he spoke in words of steadfast hope, how he ended 
his speech in 1769 in presence of a crowd of officers of 
the crown, " Independent we are, and independent we 
will be," and how he exclaimed six years later, when 



24 Memorial of Judge C/iar/cs Alien. 

the sounds of the battle of Lexington fell upon his ears, 
"A glorious morning!" A da}' had dawned which no 
night would follow. Judge Allen was deep and obsti- 
nate in his convictions and strong in his use of language, 
and sometimes offended, for he was of quick sensibility; 
but, if keen, not mean in his indignation nor unmanly 
in his resentments. And now he has gone, all men 
hasten to do him reverence. They tell us a great and 
honored man is gone, — one of the greatest and most 
honored in this communit}', to whom we owe much 
now, and whom we must always re\ere as one of the 
truest, purest, and most deserving of our public men. 

Do not misapprehend me, and suppose I would inti- 
mate that he was not appreciated in his day. No man 
ever received more distinct marks of public confidence 
than he. I have mentioned his legal honors. It is suffi- 
cient to add, that, having filled the more influential 
offices of the town and contributed his full share to its 
growth and prosperity, having represented it in both 
branches of the Legislature, having been chosen for two 
terms a member of Congress from this district, he was 
selected to cast the vote of the State in the Presidential 
election in 1844, — a signal honor; and, on another 



Memorial Sermon. 25 

occasion, he was appointed, witii two other of our ablest 
men, to fix the contested boundarv between this country 
and the British Provinces, — a great trust, imposed only 
on the wisest and best. In the Roman mythology, gods 
were set over the metes of empires, and their statues 
placed on the boundary-line to mark and guard the 
border; and, in the judgment of the Roman Senate, they 
only were deemed competent to fix the boundaries of 
the State, who held the highest rank and were able to 
rule it. Judge Allen was duly sensible of the dignity 
and responsibility of the trust, and engaged in the duty 
only when he had given to its stud}' his capacious mind, 
and, by long and intense application, had thoroughly 
comprehended it. He received from the Government, 
through the Secretary of State, express acknowledg- 
ments for his services on this occasion, for the skill and 
eminent success with which a difficult work was done. 
In this way, he became familiar with all the great sub- 
jects that were committed to him; so he became the 
profound jurist and the able legislator and reformer that 
he was; and so he won the distinction that was so freely 
and largely bestowed upon him. So history will take 
him up, and tell of his illustrious acts and award him the 
meed of her praise. 



26 Memorial of Judge Charles Allen. 

I have now spoken of our friend in relation to his 
public services. It yet remains to speak of him as a 
man in his daily walks and more private character. 
And how shall I do this clearly, truthfully, and without 
the exaggerations of partial friendship? 1 remember I 
am telling you of one whom many of this congrega- 
tion knew only when the weakness of age and the 
awful power of disease were upon him, and his splendid 
endowments had begun to be obscured. Besides, he 
was a man more than ordinarily reserved. His deeper 
feelings were closely shut up within his own bosom, 
and seldom found utterance, except to his most intimate 
Iriends, — rarely betrayed even by the tone of his voice, 
the expression of his countenance, or the trembling of a 
nerve. They who encountered him onl}' in the streets, 
stood with him in the public hall, or even sat with him at 
his own fireside, did not know him: they only could com- 
prehend the vastness of his thought, the serenity, depth, 
and tenderness of his feeling, to whom he was pleased 
to unbosom himself And, when I attempt to tell you 
what he was, what richness and beauty and sweet com- 
passion were within him, I only repeat the testimony of 
those who have been the companions of his more sacred 



Memorial Sermon. 27 

hours, and have enjoyed his more confidential inter- 
course. Oftentimes, in that intercoin"se, a single look, 
a word, a solitary act, will reveal more of the character 
than whole }'ears of casual acquaintance by the wa}', or 
in the ordinary- business of life. 

I have said that Judge Allen possessed an intellect of 
singular breadth and acuteness. He was a man of rare 
power, and with rare capacity for intellectual achieve- 
ment. But I must add, he was not a person of large 
general culture. Though he could write in admirable 
style, and speak with energy and terseness that would 
stir to enthusiasm the hearts of those who, when he 
spoke in public halls on national topics, thronged to hear 
him, he was not an extensive and indiscriminate reader. 
He was not, like Macaula}', familiar with all that had 
ever been written; so that you could no sooner quote 
an author, however obscure, than he would follow with 
another quotation still more rare, as if the whole range 
of literature had been trodden by him, and " knowledge 
lay around him like the plunder of a sacked city." He 
was not, like Choate or Sumner, accustomed to refresh 
his thoughts and refine his taste by the daily study of 
the ancient classics, in the midst of his herculean labors 



28 Memorial of Judge CJiarlcs Allen. 

at the bar or the more tranquil employments of the 
bench. Though he had carefully studied the collections 
of English poets in his youth, he was not an explorer of 
the hidden lore of books. His language did not abound 
in quotations or classical allusions; for he was not in- 
debted to the words or thoughts of others, near or distant. 
His richest thought was gathered up in the coinage 
of his own brain, and his most luminous expositions 
of truth and duty were the unborrowed expressions of 
his own heart. He seized a few great verities, and tlien 
followed them out to their legitimate conclusions. This 
you might infer from the habits of his dail}' life. Had 
you visited him at any time in moments of leisure, or 
when the pressure of professional duty was heaviest 
upon him, you would not often have found him poring 
over the exhaustless contents of the written volume, but 
pacing his chamber in the absorption of profound medi- 
tation, until the dusky problem would become luminous 
and the fresh thought would frame itself into words that 
burn. Those who have seen him in our city for a 
quarter of a century, and to-da}' recall his image, will 
think of the silent, contemplative man who used to walk 
our streets alone or with a single companion, buried in 



Memorial Sermon. 29 

thought or engaged in profound discussions of subjects 
remote enou<rh from those debated on the sidewalk or 
in the shop. He loved the beauties of the outward 
world, and they were not without their influence on his 
modes of expression. He loved to state also, for solu- 
tion, intricate legal questions, by which he would prove 
his own skill and try the skill of his companion. What 
was said of Judge Story might be said of him, — "He 
had a genius for labor;" and, while the strength of 
mind and bod}' was given him, he labored on to the 
end. 

In addition to his intellectual power. Judge Allen 
possessed great energy of character, — not the energy 
which appears in nervous irritability, impetuous speech, 
and passionate gesticulation. His voice was thin, his 
ordinary utterance languid, and he moved among us 
with tranquil, measured step. But, beneath that out- 
ward simplicity, there was an energy of will and purpose 
that was peculiar and decisive. What he resolved to 
do, he would do. What he undertook, he seldom failed 
to accomplish. Opposition only kindled his zeal, and 
aroused his deeper feelings; and, as he was deserted by 
others on whom he relied, did he learn himself, and did 



30 Memorial of Judge Charles Allen. 

others learn, what reserved force was in him. And, 
what is not common, the deeper his emotion, the more 
intense his feeling, the more calm outwardly he became. 
The things said and done in the very heat of his pas- 
sion, were said and done with a cool deliberation of 
manner that took away the suggestion of undue excite- 
ment. This is shown in the course of his whole life- 
achievement, lie did much; but what he did was not 
done through a combination of favoring circumstances. 
He rose to eminence, not because he knew how to 
spread his sails when the winds blew and the tides were 
propitious, but rather because there was in him the in- 
ward power which, like the subtle steam in the trusted 
boat, would bear him onward against wind and tide and 
the currents of the ocean. Though he was glad to 
receive help from others, it was not through their inspi- 
ration his own enthusiasm was enkindled. The im- 
pulses that moved him were formed in the depth of his 
own bosom, and he became himself the inspirer. To 
him and one other, his political associate, we are more 
indebted than to any man else for the first effectual blow 
that served to stay the current of public wrong, and for 
the noble resistance that has been made to the lawless 



Memorial Sermon. 31 

oppressions which threatened to invade the sanctuaries of 
our New-England homes, and for the wider diffusion of 
that generous freedom which adorns and ghiddens these 
homes to-day. When, in that great pubHc assembly in 
Philadelphia, he rose in his place, exclaimed in tones 
not to be forgotten, " Massachusetts spurns the bribe," 
and then left the hall to return to it no more, he revealed 
the intensely earnest nature that was in him; and, in the 
wide-spread consequences of that one act, he showed 
the power of his simplest utterances over the thoughts 
and actions of men. 

Another trait in the character of Judge Allen was his 
extreme conscientiousness. His respect for truth and 
right was a principle, planted in his instincts, moulded 
in his early youth, confirmed b}' the habits of his life, — 
growing with his growth, and strengthening with his 
strength. He never asked himself whether he should 
do a right thing, whether he should yield to his in- 
clinations or to his conscience. Let him be convinced 
that the thing was right, let it enter his deeper convic- 
tions, and he was sure to do it in spite of opposition, 
in the face of peril. I know this reverence for con- 
science may not have been conceded to him by all. In 



32 Memorial of Judge Charles Allen. 



consequence of his great sensibility, and promptly ex- 
pressed dissent from others when he differed, he may 
have seemed to be influenced by passion and prejudice, 
and his noblest deeds been misconstrued. When, for 
instance, he rebuked Mr. Webster in open court for a 
violation of the rules of the Bar, and suspended the 
proceedings while he persevered in the act, it may have 
seemed but the prompting of ill-nature and the wanton 
exercise of a brief authority. I believe the rebuke, 
which called forth ample apology, proceeded from a 
profound sense of duty. He was seated on the tribunal 
of justice. The dignity and sanctity of the law were 
invested in his person. Private wrongs were there to 
be corrected, and the rights of humanity waited there 
for redress. The great and the small, the strong and 
the weak, were to be alike protected there; and he 
was not the man to falter when the dignity and author- 
ity of that court were in danger of being impaired by 
the careless presumption of even the eminent advocate. 
Its purity and sanctity were never more sacredly guarded 
than when he occupied the bench, and the rules of law 
more conscientiously observed than when he practised 
the profession. He sought more the delicate discharge 



Memorial Sermon. 2,2) 



of duty than the approbation of clients, " fat contention, 
and flowing fees." Tiie wrong-doer came to him in vain 
for help, except to turn from the evil and do good. He 
was asked to write a will for a client; and when he saw 
that in the disposition of his property he was under the 
influence of prejudice and doing an act of injustice to 
his offspring, he expostulated with the dying man, and 
with some degi-ee of asperity endeavored to dissuade 
him from his hai'd-hearted act. And when he could not 
do this, he indignantly threw aside the papers and re- 
fused to write a line, exclaiming, "Then you must get 
some one else to write your will for you." So delicate 
was his conscience, so acute his sensibilit}', that he held 
himself responsible for deeds which he was only the 
official agent in accomplishing. So also his conscien- 
tiousness in the mere trivial acts of his daily life. And 
such was not onl}' his uprightness, but his reputation for 
uprightness, that I do not believe any one ever dared 
offer him a bribe, or tried to turn him by fear or favor 
from the course of his honest convictions. "Massa- 
chusetts knows how to spurn the bribe," and he was a 
son of Massachusetts. The prophet may claim in token 
of his power to carry back the shadow upon the dial- 



34 Memorial of yudgc Charles Allen. 

plate; the consecrated priest for the sake of the cause 
ma}' misrepi-esent; but I do not believe that our friend 
would ever waver a hair's-breadth from his convictions 
of right and duty and moral obligation. Fidelity to 
conscience, whatever it might cost him, it is not too 
much to say, was the central power and motive and 
action of his life; and he felt profoundly in the inner 
core of his being what the leading thinker and writer 
of our times has so linely expressed. " The aspect of 
the years that approach us," says Ruskin, " is as solemn 
as it is full of mystery; and the weight of evil against 
which we have to contend is increasing like the let- 
ting out of water. It is no time for the idleness of 
metaphysics or the calculations of expediency. The 
blasphemies of the earth are sounding louder, and its 
miseries heaped heaven-high every day; and if, in the 
midst of the exertion which every good man is called 
upon to put forth for their repression or relief, it is law- 
ful to ask for a thought, for a moment, for a lifting up of 
the linger, it is at least incumbent upon us to approach 
the questions in which we would engage him in the 
spirit which has shown him how these things which 
seemed mechanical, indifferent, or contemptible, depend 



Memorial Sermon. 35 



for their perfection upon the acknowledgment of the 
sound principles of faith, truth, and obedience, for which 
it has become the occupation of his life to contend.'' 

" The principles of faith, truth, and obedience," pro- 
found religious principles, — these were wrought into 
the mind and folded in the heart of our fellow-worship- 
per, and were his strength, his inspiration, the source of 
his power. Who among us maintained a more sincere, 
reverent faith, or believing found in his belief more im- 
pulse, guidance, and support? Reared under the pulpit 
instructions of my venerable predecessor, that clear 
reasoner and able expounder of religious truth, he was 
never satisfied with vague religious sentiment. He be- 
lieved with the whole strength of his conviction in the 
divine origin, the sanctity and supreme authorit}', of 
Christianity. A revering Avorshipper of God, a sincere 
disciple of Jesus, he had no sympathy for the philosophy 
which in our day is offered as a substitute for the old 
faith of Christendom, and seeks in a refined theism to 
satisfy the deep cravings of the human soul. He be- 
lieved in the supernatural gifts, the moral supremacy, 
and the life-giving Spirit of the Son of God. His word 
contains God's great message of pardon and love and 



36 Memorial of Judge Charles Allen. 

immortal peace, and its chief work is to create that in- 
ward purity and spread those kindly aflections which 
bind man to man and all men to God. He reposed in it 
with unbounded confidence. He contemplated with 
awe and gratitude the power which it has put forth in 
all lands and all ages. He sought its guidance. He 
threw himself upon its bosom. He breathed in its 
spirit, and found solace and support in its consolations. 
I said he breathed in its spirit. I now add that few 
laymen among us comprehended as he did its doctrines. 
Entering upon the serious responsibilities of life just at 
a period when the great religious controversies which 
shook the country half a century ago were beginning to 
agitate the community, he was led to study the subject 
with the deliberation and thoroughness with which he 
would study a case to be argued before the highest 
courts of the land. He made himself familiar with the 
controversial writings of Channing and Norton and 
Ware, and of Stuart and Woods; and no theologian 
among us better understood, and could more ably state, 
the points at issue. He studied, not that he might de- 
fend a sect, but that he might know the truth. He 
studied that he might comprehend the mysteries of the 



Memorial Sermon. 37 

kingdom of God, that his faith might rest on a stable 
foundation, and his eharacter be formed after the divine 
model. And how satisfying, cheering, and ennobling 
the result! No more unbelief, no more wavering doubts 
for him! He reposed at length on those large and 
generous convictions, which, alike remote from all 
narrowness and superstitious fears and overweening 
assumption, have been the stay and solace of some 
of the 'noblest men, his predecessors and companions 
in the walks of public service and self-sacrificing devo- 
tion. A descendant of the Puritans, he loved their 
simplicity and the purity of their worship, and was 
impatient of the mass of labored ceremonies which 
have been crowded into the Christian Church, and so 
hindered the influence of its life-giving spirit. A sin- 
cere disciple of the great Master, he found personal 
help in the observance of the rites which He had 
appointed. His associations with these were pecu- 
liarly tender. He believed in the religious consecra- 
tions of the household. He would sit lowly at the 
feast of remembrance, and was wont to speak gratefully 
and gladly of the privilege. It brought the Saviour 
near. It marked him as the leader of the sacramental 



38 Memorial of Judge Charles Allen. 

host, and he loved to be in the throng of his attend- 
ants. 

I have now spoken, not as I would, but as I have 
been able, of our honored associate and friend, and 
have tried to hold him up before you as he was, in the 
largeness of his intellectual gifts, the richness of his 
character, and the variety and extent of his public ser- 
vices. It is many months since any one has passed 
away from among us, who was seated so deeply in the 
reverence of the public heart, and whose removal called 
forth, from all quarters of the land, and public prints of 
every political and religious party, such expressions of 
reverence and admiration. They who are wont to be 
silent have spoken now. In recording his death, they 
speak of him as "the most intellectual man, the most 
eminent for political integrity and courage, that has 
appeared among us." They speak of him as "one of 
the firmest patriots and most exemplary lawyers that ever 
adorned our country." They tell of " his stainless pub- 
lic career, and of his early, constant, powerful influence 
in behalf of justice and freedom for all." " He was a 
leader worth acknowledging, and his advocacy ennobled 
any cause." In such terms of heart-stirring eulogy, men 



Memorial Sermon. 39 



far and near have written and spoken of him, — written 
and spoken as they have done of few men who have ever 
lived and died among us. It is fitting, therefore, that we 
who have been his contemporaries, — who have been fa- 
miliar with the largeness of his endowments, the purity of 
his character, and the brilliancy of his achievements, — 
should bear also our testimon}-. We know whereof we 
speak, and, therefore, for our own sake and yours, have 
spoken. Held in the grasp and lying under the shadow 
of a mysterious disease for many weary months, we thank 
the good providence of God, he is now released. The 
brilliant faculties, so long wayward and wandering, are 
restored. The nice sensibilities that slept, have now 
awoke; and the sweet aifections, clouded for a while, 
are now rekindled, and burn anew with fresh bright- 
ness in the Father's kingdom. We have not asked that 
he should linger longer. We resign him without a 
murmur. We have welcomed the messenger that called 
him home. Gone, my brother, from the infirmities, the 
illusions, the protracted suffering, here below, we follow 
thee with the tender and grateful acknowledgments of 
this community and this Commonwealth, whose welfare 
thou didst so much to promote; with the benedictions 



40 Memorial of Judge Charles Allen. 

of those who knew and honored and loved thee; gone, 
the day of life now over, the work of life now done, 
bearing sheaves from the rich harvest-field; gone into 
thy rest, — the sweet* repose of the true, earnest, and 
faithful soul, — to join the company of the pure and 
good, the gentle, the loving, the lost, the found. 

A few weeks ago, — in midsummer it was, — I saw 
our friend for the last time. It was in one of those 
lucid intervals, when Heaven's dread visitation seemed 
for a brief while suspended and the current of thought 
flowed freely. He knew me, and spoke to me as in the 
old times. We talked together of the past, and of the 
pains and enjoyments which its changing years had 
brought; of the future and the scenes of unimagined 
good which it would bring; of the feebleness of our 
human conceptions and of the wonders that would be 
revealed. And, as we conversed, his tones softened 
into gentleness and his countenance lighted up with 
more than earthly radiance. His eye melted, his voice 
deepened, and his face was transfigured. As I looked 
and listened, I thought I saw more clearly, I compre- 
hended better, what Jesus meant, when, withdrawing the 
veil of mystery, he spoke of the destinies of the faithful 



Memorial Sermon. 41 



departed soul and of the life eternal. Life eternal ! 
How shall I express my thought of it? It is not mere 
existence, however prolonged and free from annoyance. 
It is not the pleasure of the senses, however vivid. It 
is not peace. It is not happiness. It is not joy. But it 
is all these combined into one condition 'of spiritual per- 
fection, — one emotion of indescribable rapture, — the 
peace after the storm has gone by, — the soft repose 
after the grief is over, — the joy of victory when the 
conflict is ended. It is that blessedness, that fulness of 
satisfaction, which Jesus felt when *" He rejoiced in 
spirit," and, with tender, uplifting accents, bade his dis- 
ciples be glad because their names were written in 
heaven. It is contained in that more than earthly ex- 
pression which the old painters have given to the pic- 
tures of their saints and mart\'rs, — the expression which 
I have sometimes seen on the countenance of the dyino-, 
— so sweet, so affectionate, so loving, as if they were 
already gazing up into heaven and conversing with 
angels; that strange, heart-thrilling, never-to-be-forgotten 
expression, which I saw that day on the face of our 
friend now gone. 

And I pray the children, family, and friends who have 



42 Memorial of Judge Charles Allejt. 

watched so many long months the alternations of dis- 
ease, its humiliations, and its triumphs, and have been 
so unwearied in the ministrations of sympathy, — I pray 
them to think of this, now the pall of death hath fallen 
and the sufferings are ended. He, whom they so re- 
vered and loved, is not dead, but liveth now a higher 
life. He hath left the earthly, and entered upon the 
heavenly. It is the wise that shall shine as the firma- 
ment J and they that live in their good deeds and turn 
many to righteousness, " as the stars for ever and 
ever." 




PROCEEDINGS OP^ WORCESTER BAR 



ON" THE 



DEATH OF CHIEF-JUSTICE ALLEN. 




iifUMj 



si%^ 






?^ 



COMMEMORATION OF THE LATE CHIEF-JUSTICE 

ALLEN. 

{From the Worcester Palladiiiin, September 22, 1869.) 

" I "HERE was a veiy full attendance of the Bar of Worces- 
ter Count}', in the Superior Court, in this city on Friday 
afternoon, to take some action in recognition of the death of 
Charles Allen, late Chief Justice of that court. Chief Justice 
Brigham was on the bench. 

Hon. George F. Hoar presented and read the following 
resolutions, which had been adopted by the Bar : — 



Resolved, That we desire to declare and record our rever- 
ence for the memory of our late distinguished associate, the 
Hon. Charles Allen, so long the honored leader of this Bar, 
more lately the head of the Superior Court, and during his 
whole public life one of the purest and most eminent of the 
public men of the country. 

Resolved, That native powers of intellect of the very high- 
est order; the training of vigorous and faithful earlv studv ; 



46 Memorial of fudge Charles Alien. 

profound mastery of the principles of the common law, and 
of the kindred principles of civil government and civil liberty ; 
the constant habit of thorough, clear, accurate, independent 
thinking ; extensive knowledge of the history of his own coun- 
try and State ; familiarity with the purest models of English 
literature ; a pervading grace and dignity of conduct and man- 
ners ; stainless purity of lite ; an unostentatious but earnest 
religious faith ; love of justice ; love of truth ; a nature which 
instinctively espoused the cause of innocence or weakness 
injured or oppressed ; a lotty scorn of every thing mean or 
base ; a courage which never quailed or flinched before the 
face of any antagonist, — united to make up in Ciiarles Allen 
a counsellor to whose judgment the most important interests 
could be safely confided, an advocate able to command the 
deference, to win the ear, and to convince the understanding 
of courts and juries, and a magistrate capable of maintaining, 
amid tiie conflicts of the Bar, the supremacy of the bench, and 
the supremacy of justice and law over the conflicting interests 
and passions of the people. 

Resolved, That the life of Charles Allen atTords a conspic- 
uous example of the truth that the love of civil liberty is a 
result of a thorough comprehension of the principles of the 
common law, and that there can be no better training for the 
defence of the one tiian the study and mastery of the other. 

Resolved, That these resolutions be presented to the court 
now in session, and that the clerk be requested to transmit a 
copy of them to the family of Judge Allen. 



Commemoration by Worcesici' Bar. 47 

Mr. Hoar then addressed the court as follows : — • 

BOX. GEORGE F. HOARS ADDRESS. 

Mr. Chief Justice, — Since the death, on the sixth of, 
August, of 3'our distinguished predecessor, the press of the 
country, far and wide ; the pulpit, especially of the church 
where, from his }-outh up, he had worshipped ; the civil 
authorities of his native city, and hosts of private friends, 
have borne witness to his virtues. But we should leave the 
proprieties of the occasion incomplete, and do injustice to our 
own feelings, if this Bar of which he was so long the chief 
ornament, and this court of which he was the honored head, 
and to whose successful inauguration he lent the weight of 
his great fame, should not add their tributes of affection and 
respect. 

Judge Allen was born in this town, in a house in this street, 
just sevent3'-two years before the day of his burial. He was 
of the best Puritan stock. His great-grandfather was Samuel 
Adams, of Boston, the father of the illustrious patriot. His 
father, Joseph Allen, himself an honored member of this Bar, 
w^as as a son to his honored uncle (whose only son died long 
before his parent) and enjo\-ed probably more than any other 
man his confidence and affection. In a biography of Samuel 
Adams, I find this notice of the death of Judge Allen's great- 
grandfather, from the " Boston Weekly Gazette " of March, 
1748, which describes traits for which so man\- generations of 
the family have been conspicuous, and would almost answer 
for an obituary of our friend : — 



48 Memorial of Judge Charles Allen. 



" Last week died Samuel Adams, Esq., a gentleman who 
sustained man}' public ofHces among us, and for some time 
past represented this town in the General Assembly. He was 
one who well understood the civil and religious interests of 
this people : a true New-England man : an honest patriot. 
Help, Lord ! for such wise and good men cease, and such 
faithful members tail tVom among the sons of New England." 

As I have looked upon that masterpiece of Copley, the pic- 
ture of Samuel i\dams in Faneuil Hall, I have been struck 
with its likeness to the features of living members of the 
family of Judge Allen ; and as I have read the life of the 
Father of American Independence, I have been struck with 
the likeness of the intellectual and moral traits of Judge Allen 
to those of his illustrious kinsman, of whom Hutchinson wrote 
to his masters in England, that "he could not be bribed, could 
not be flattered, and could not be scared.'" The simple, frugal 
life.: the independence; the love (.f liberty ; the power of lead- 
ing and influencing other minds ; the compact, chaste style, so 
clear and concise, in which the thought tills out the sentence ; 
the habit of thinking for other men, guiding them, accomplish- 
ing the result, while conspicuous station was left to others ; the 
indomitable courage, the indomitable will, the unerring wis- 
dom, — were the conspicuous traits in both. 

Judge Allen was admitted to this Bar at the age of twent)' 
one. His preparation was a most diligent and faithful study 
of the principles of the common law in a few standard author- 
ities, especially Blackstone, in whose st}le. clear definitions, 
and orderly arrangement, lie much delighted, and which he 



Co7nnicmoraiioii by Wo7'ccsttr Bar. 4() 

could repeat almost vcrhatini. He was not given to the .study 
of cases, except so far as the}' were the key to principles. I 
have it from an unquestionable authorit}-, that the examiners 
who were deputed by the court to ascertain his qualifications 
for admission, prolonged the examination lor their own grati- 
fication at the extent of his learning, and his prompt and 
clear solution of the legal problems by which they tested 
him. 

He also, as a literary exercise, carefully read and studied 
the English classic poetr}-, reading through the whole fit'ty 
volumes of the old edition of the British poets. He had a 
fondness tor the history of New England, and knew all about 
the growth of its religious opinions and of the simple congre- 
gational form of church government, which is both the cause 
and the result of so much that is best in the character of our 
people. With these exceptions. Judge Allen was not, so far 
as I can learn, what would be called a scholar. His prepara- 
tion tor the duties of his profession and of lite was chieti}- by 
profound original thought. Those of us who have been asso- 
ciated with him in important causes, tell amusing stories of 
his being called upon for his authorities for the preparation 
of the brief, and handing to the junior a list of cases which 
coincided with those which came first under the head in 
Minot's Digest, relating to the subject-matter. Yet he did not 
come into the presence of court or jury unprepared to present 
his client's case in the manner best calculated to convince the 
imderstandings he had to address. His work was done, his 
argument was prepared and founded on the impregnable rock 



50 Memorial of Judge Cliarles Allen. 



of principle, as he paced to and fro in his office, or took his 
solitary walk abroad. 

The quickness of liis intellectual operations was marvellous. 
He selected his position at once, under the most sudden and 
perplexing emergencies, and no man ever dislodged Charles 
Allen from a position he had once taken up. 

No man who had to deal with him remained long in the 
attitude of the attacking party. He always put his adversary 
on the defensive. The result was that the place and manner 
of the battle were chosen b}^ him. His sagacity in judging 
of the eflect of evidence surpassed that of any man I ever 
knew. His power of influencing the minds of juries was 
most remarkable. He understood thoroughly the habits of 
thought of our farmers, who in his day made up the largest, as 
they still do the most valuable, portion of our juries. 

I think, for what, for want of a better phrase, I will term 
force of intellect, he was above any man whom I have known 
in this Commonwealth. Some of his constant antagonists were 
men who have given to this Bar a wide national reputation, 
and filled high judicial and political stations ; and yet his 
superiority in the contests of the court-room over those men 
always seemed to be as marked as it was over the boy who 
had just taken the oaths. He never seemed to be doing his 
utmost. In his greatest efforts there were signs of a reserved 
power capable of still greater. He was one of those men 
who could not be easy if on the wrong side. He took no 
delio-ht in displaying his ingenuity in the defence of desperate 
cases. If he saw the truth was on his side, he fought that 



Commcnioratio7i by Worccslcr Bar. 



battle at whatever odds, and never rested till he had im- 
pressed his own conviction on the mind of the tribunal. But 
he could not deal in sophistries, or argue what he did not 
believe. With Uiese intellectual and moral traits, he, of 
course, took his place in the front rank of the law3ers of 
the Commonwealth. Probably there is no person within the 
sound of my voice who can remember a time, until the close 
of his life, when he was not the acknowledged head of the 
profession, and the ablest and most influential citizen of this 
county. 

As a natural result, the State many times soutrht for his 
services in the highest judicial positions. Twice he was 
offered a seat as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, 
once b}' Gov. Briggs and once by Gov. Banks, and we have 
it, also, on the authority of the farewell address of the latter, 
that he was offered the position of Chief Justice of the Su- 
preme Court on the occasion of the retirement of Chief- 
Justice Shaw. 

But he preferred the duties of nisi priiis. His e3"esight, I 
think, though strong enough for the ordinary uses of a busy 
lite, would hardly have permitted the extensive reading, by 
night as well as by day, which the preparation of opinions 
would have required ; and his physical organization, always 
delicate, though protected by his temperate and regular habits, 
and his unusual knowledge of the laws of health, would not 
have borne the fati<jue of lontj sessions in banc. He had a 
sense also of the dignity and importance of the principal nisi 
frills court, which has always maintained so high a place in 



52 Memorial of yndgc Charles Allen. 

the respect and confidence oi" the public. It is hardly too 
much to say, that as the time in a race depends upon the 
speed ot^ the second horse, and not of the first, so the strength 
of our highest court, and the dignity of the legal profession, 
and the judiciary itself, will depend very largely upon the 
character of this court, to which we must look for the train- 
ing of those judges who are to fill the higher places, and 
with which the people come most directly in contact. I think 
Judge Allen looked back on no part of his life with more 
pleasure than upon his term of service on the old Common- 
Pleas bench, when he was associated with that model judge, 
Chief-Justice Williams, with the still living Judge Warren, — 
one of the most brilliant and acute intellects of the State, — 
and with Judge Strong, together making up a bench not sur- 
passed in ability or reputation by the Supreme Court of any 
other State in the Union. These reasons led Judge Allen to 
give to this court in its organization the dignity of his great 
reputation and the weight of his great abilities. 

How he performed these important duties I will not under- 
take, in the presence of your Honor and of this assemblage 
who know better than I can state it, to tell. One act of his 
has taken its place in the history of the Commonwealth. To 
Samuel Adams it was owing that Massachusetts, in the midst 
of just and aroused indignation at the massacre of unoffend- 
ing citizens by the British soldiery in 1770, gave the soldiers 
a fair trial. His influence prevailed on John Adams and 
Josiah Quincy to encounter the unpopularity of lending their 
professional services to the defence of the accused, thus plac- 



Commemoration by Worcester Bar. 53 



ing one of the brightest laurels in the crown of Massachu- 
setts. There is but one parallel case in American history. 
When the people of Massachusetts heard that a human being 
had been kidnapped and carried into slavery, as he was land- 
ing on the shores of the old colony, and the State was stirred 
with indi<rnation from one end to the other at the insult and 
profanation, we heard with exulting delight that the great 
abolitionist was to hold the court for the trial of the kidnapper. 
But Judge Allen's upright and impartial administration of the 
law taught us that even a slave catcher could not fail in his 
reliance on the justice of Massachusetts, and true obedience 
to law was a higher duty even than moral indignation against 
an outrage like that. 

[Mr. Hoar gave a sketch of Judge Allen's services in the 
negotiation of the Washington-boundary question, which con- 
tributed so largely to save the country from war and secure 
the just rights of the Commonwealth, and won trom Mr. 
Webster the compliment, "Judge Allen is a great arranger of 
men.'"] 

But, Mr. Chief Justice, in discussing Judge Allen as a 
lawyer and a jurist, I have omitted to dwell on what was the 
most conspicuous and characteristic trait in his character, and 
constitutes his chief title to a place in history. I mean his 
ardent, unquenchable love of liberty. This is not the place 
nor the occasion to set forth his services to human freedom. 
As the leader and counsellor of this people in all that per- 



54 Memorial of Jncigc Cliarlcs Allen. 

tained to the security of their dearest rights when in peril, he 
has had, in my judgment, in this generation, neither equal 
nor second. We may fill imperfectly his place at the Bar. 
Able and learned men, high in the public confidence, have 
succeeded, and will hereafter succeed, to the duties of his 
great office upon the bench. 

But when, in the troubled time that is before us, the highest 
qualities of courage and conduct shall be in demand, and the 
wisest and bravest are filled with anxiety ibr the institutions 
on which the fate of civil liberty depends, we shall miss the 
wise counsel, the indomitable courage, the inflexible will, 
which have been so often our encouragement and guide. 

Hon. P. Emory Aldrich addressed the Court as fol- 
lows : — 

HON. P. EMORY ALDRICHS ADDRESS. 

May it please your Honor, — Judge Allen, the late dis- 
tinguished Chief Justice of this court was one of that class of 
great lawyers who early acquire a high professional reputa- 
tion, and are able to maintain it tiirougli a long succession of 
}'ears, and in tlie midst of the most vigorous and active rival- 
ries and competitions of the Bar. 

His early studies were thorough and profound, as some of 
his contemporaries who survive him bear witness, and who in- 
form us that, in his early professional career, he exhibited that 
same rare sagacity, soundness of judgment, and mastery of 
principles which characterized him to the latest day and act 
of his judicial life. 



Commemoration by Worcester Bar. • 55 



Admitted to the Bar before he had yet readied the age of 
t\vent\-one jears, he opened an office in one of the small hut 
thriving towns in the western part of this county, where he re- 
mained five or six years. And when some twenty-five or 
thirty years later I commenced practice in the same commu- 
nity, the reputation he had won there, in those early years, 
was still spoken of with admiration and pride by those who 
had been the clients and friends of the young law3er, and who 
had followed him through all his subsequent and more con- 
spicuous public career. 

JNIy own acquaintance with Judge Allen commenced twenty- 
one years ago, when he had already reached the height of his 
professional and judicial fume, and was recognized as one of 
the leading minds of his time and countr}-. 

My first introduction to him was in Independence Square, 
Philadelphia, in the spring or summer of 1S4S, at the time 
when the Whig National Convention of that year was in session 
in that city. He was a delegate to the convention trom this 
congressional district. The convention was composed of the 
great leaders and strong men of the party, from all sections of 
the Union. I occupied a seat at the reporters' table, and had 
therefore a good opportunity to hear and see all that transpired. 
It was a period of great political excitement : the debates in 
the convention were stormy ; its proceedings were conducted 
in the midst of almost continual disorder and intense excite- 
ment, which reached its highest point when the voting for a 
presidential candidate began, on the second day of the conven- 
tion. The voting was viva voce, — each delegate announcing 



^6 Mc7norial of yudge Charles Allen. 

the name of his candidate, as his own name was called by the sec- 
retary of the convention. The leading candidates were Henry 
Clay and General Taylor, whose gallant and heroic conduct, 
during the then recent Mexican war, had rendered him a 
great popular favorite. Massachusetts voted steadily for her 
own great statesman Daniel Webster, until near the close of 
the voting, when one voice from among the Massachusetts 
delegates was given to General Taylor. It became pretty evi- 
dent, before the end of the first day's voting, that neither of the 
eminent statesmen named would receive the nomination, but 
tiiat the successful soldier would. 

This was the state of affairs when I met Judge Allen, as I 
have already said. He spoke of the proceedings of the con- 
vention the day before ; said he should regard the nomination 
of General Taylor as the triumph of the slave power, which 
was already casting its ominous shadows across the continent, 
and intimated to us the course he intended to pursue if that 
nomination was made. 

We returned to the convention, and after a few more trials, 
Gen. Taylor's nomination was secured. Scarcely had the wild 
and tumultuous applause with whicii the announcement of the 
nomination was received died awa}-. when the slender form 
of Judge Allen was seen, for the first time, rising in that part 
of the hall assigned to the Massachusetts delegation : and 
when silence was restored, he read from a paper, in a firm 
but unimpassioned tone of voice, a few well-chosen words, 
denouncing the nomination as an abandonment of principle, 
and declaring the dissolution of the Whig party. Having 



Comnumoratiori by Worcester Bar. 57 

done this, and having consumed less than five minutes in the 
doinor of it, he turned his back on that convention and the 
powerful organization it represented, and of which he had been 
an honored and leading member, and went forth to the coun- 
try to make his words good by a direct appeal to the people. 
I heard his first speech delivered to the people in the old City 
Hall in this city, after his return from the convention. And 
as a bold, vigorous, trenchant, and effective speech, I have 
never heard it surpassed. I did not at that time follow Judge 
Allen's lead ; and I have therefore felt the more at liberty to 
allude to these passages in his lite, as conspicuous illustrations 
of that trait in his mind and character — moral courage — 
which he possessed in a supereminent degree. Whatever he 
thought it his duty to do he did, regardless of opposition or 
obloquv. The fear of man or men was one of the things of 
which he seemed to be wholly unconscious. 

I afterwards knew him as a member of the Constitutional 
Convention of 1S53, assembled to revise the Constitution of this 
Commonwealth. He was not one of the most conspicuous de- 
baters or actors in that assembly ; yet it was well understood 
that, by his counsel and advice, he exerted a great and con- 
trolling influence over the proceedings of the convention ; and 
it could be readily seen by those of us among the younger and 
more inexperienced members, who occupied posts of obsei-va- 
tion rather than of active participation in the doings of the 
convention, that Judge Allen easily maintained the rank of an 
equal, if not that of leader, among the most eminent members, 
— such as Choate, Chief-Justice Parker, Ex-Governors Morton 



58 Memorial of yudgc Charles Allen. 

and Boutwell, the learned Professor Greenleaf, Sidne}' Bartlett, 
Senator Sumner, and man)' others of like character and position. 
And this he did without apparent eflbrt, and without any re- 
sort to that noisy and obtrusive style of conduct whicii inferior 
men find it necessary to adopt to make their presence known 
and felt in the assemblies of their superiors. Yet, while there 
was no offensive assumption on his part of superiority, there 
was, in the bearing of Judge Allen, that quiet dignit\' and re- 
pose of manner which only come from the conscious possession 
of superior talents. 

I knew him afterwards, and more intimately during the few 
years when he resumed practice at this Bar, after his return 
from Congress, and betbre his appointment as Chief Justice of 
the Superior Court of Suffolk Count3^ I was associated with 
him in the trial of se\-eral causes, and learned from him some 
of tlie most useful lessons of my professional life, in the conduct 
and argument of jury causes. His manner of examining and 
cross-examining witnesses exhibited the perfection of skill and 
knowledge in that branch of our profession. His cross-exam- 
inations were ordinarily brief; and often adverse witnesses 
were dismissed without a single question from him. But it 
was a fearful thing tor a false and fraudulent witness, who had 
sworn to important matters against the interest of iiis client, to 
fall into his hands. With a clear perception of truth and its 
correlations, and an unerring skill in the detection of false- 
hood, he rarely let't such a witness luitil he had driven him 
from all his subterfuges of lies and sent him from the stand ut- 
terly discredited in the minds of the jury. 



Commemom/ioit by IVorceshr Bar. 59 

His discussions of questions of law which arose in tlae prog- 
ress of a trial, were clear, forcible, and direct. He relied 
more upon general principles than upon decided cases in all 
such discussions. His knowledge of the law and rules of e\-i- 
dence, of its relevancy and value, seemed to me to surpass that 
of ahnost anv other eminent member of our prot'ession whom 
I have ever seen engaged in the actual trial of causes in coiu"t. 
I have known those who would discuss more learnedly the 
law of evidence, and cite a multitude of cases, but scarcely one 
who could in the actual conflicts of the court-room, make so 
wise an application of his knowledge to the case in hand. He 
was not like the profound mathematician who could solve all 
mathematical theorems and problems in the lecture-room, but 
could never make any application of his theoretical knowledge 
to the actual affairs of life. Judge Allen's knowledge was 
profound, and it was also practical. 

We saw and knew much of him here as a judge. And there 
are very few members of this Bar now actively engaged in 
practice, who remember much of him in anv other capacity. 
He is known to most of us now present, mainly as Chiet-Jus- 
tice Allen. As a lawyer he belonged to an earlier generation. 
Many of his chief competitors of an earlier period, when we 
first knew him, had passed away. Some had died, others had 
been elevated to the Bench, and some had gone into other 
pursuits ; but he remained the long-acknowledged and unri- 
valled leader of the Bar, until he himsell", having declined the 
Chiet-Justiceship of the Supreme Judicial Court, was appointed 
Chief Justice of the newly established Superior Court, which 



6o Mcjiiorial of yudgc Cliarlcs Allen. 

office he continued to hokl until he resigned it a }'ear or two 
before his death. 

In regard to the otler to liini of the Chief-Justiceship of the 
Supreme Judicial Court, I cnuld, if it was necessary, add to 
the evidence already adduced, his own declaration to me that 
such an offer was matle to him and declined. This statement 
was made by him incidentall}' in a conversation in which I 
expressed some surprise that he did not accept an appointment 
to the Supreme Bench which I understood had been tendered 
to him. 

It is perhaps one of the most striking evidences of Judge 
Allen's real and confessed superiority, that honors and offices 
sought him all through lil'e, and that he never ran after or 
sought them. 

But I \\\\\ attempt no farther delineation of his public life 
and cliaracter, — that has already been done with great dis- 
crimination and justice by tlie gentleman who preceded me. 
But I cannot forbear to state in this connection that the last 
cause tried by Judge Allen, and only a few weeks before his 
resignation, was one of great importance, and involved a novel 
application of the law relating to the liability of common car- 
riers of passengers. The trial lasted several days, and the 
judge showed signs of weariness, and a great disinclination to 
protracted labor and thought. A good deal of solicitude was 
felt as to whether he would be able to complete the trial. The 
evidence and arguments of counsel were finally closed, and 
the Chief Justice rose to charge the jury. In attempting to 
restate the evidence, he seemed to have lost the familiar grasp 



Commemoration bv JVoncshr Bar. 6i 



and mastci"\' ot facts wliich were new tn him, and lie did not 
get througli that part ot" his charge witiiout some confusion 
of thought and statement. ]>ut wlien he came to a discussion 
of the principles of hiw wliich were to govern the jury in their 
determination of the cause, his mind seemed at once to resume 
its accustomed force and clearness ; his unsurpassed power 
and perspicuity of statement returned to him ; and although I 
tried the case afterwards, betbre two different judges of this 
court, and twice argued it before the Supreme Court, yet the 
full minutes I have of his charge furnish evidence that no judge 
who has since dealt with the questions involved has been able 
to make a more forcible or more accurate statement and expo- 
sition of the law governing the case. 

During the last fourteen years of his life, it was my good 
fortune to be one of his nearest neighbors, and I saw and knew 
much of him in the relations of private life ; and I remember 
him as a most agreeable and considerate neighbor. He was 
a readv, wise, and S3'mpathizing counsellor to all who sought 
his advice in a proper manner. He enjoyed the social inter- 
course and companionships of life. He was entertaining and 
instructive in conversation. He was fond of out-door exercise, 
and often sought the companionship of a friend in his walks. 
He loved external nature and held 

■' Communion with licr visible forms '" . . . 

with a keen and ever-abiding relish. He was of a reverent 
s]iirit, ne\er trifling with the great truths of life, death, and 
immortalit\- ; but he was liberal and tolerant tmvards all who 
differed with him in opinion upon these great and transcendent 
themes. 



62 Memorial of ^iidgc CJiarlcs Allen. 

And while I agree with those who say Judge Allen was less 
demonstrative in his expressions of friendship and regard than 
many men are, yet I totally differ from those who are accus- 
tomed to speak of him as one possessed of a cold and unsym- 
pathizing nature. 

If I might be pardoned an allusion to my own personal ex- 
perience in corroboration of ni}' opinion, I would say that when 
I first came to this city with my family, — strangers to most of 
its inhabitants, — Judge Allen was the first, and that right earl}--, 
to make us forget we were among strangers, and opened his 
friendly anil hospitable doors to a pleasant and invaluable so- 
'cial intercourse which knew no abatement to the day of his 
death. lie understood and dul\- appreciated his own position 
in society, and what its rights and duties v\'ere ; but he held 
in deserved contempt all merely factitious distinctions, all 
shams and pretence, and directed against them some of the 
keenest shafts of his sarcasm. 

But I must bring these desultor}' and imperiect reminiscences 
to a close. I have spoken not merely to express my admira- 
tion of Chief-Justice Allen as a great lawyer, as an upright 
magistrate and public benefactor, but out of a grateful mem- 
ory to recall and commemorate the gentler virtues and graces 
which adorned his life, — qualities which throw a mild lustre 
over those sterner and perhaps more enduring attributes of his 
character which most attracted the attention of men, while he 
was still living, and which enable us now with truth and jus- 
tice to apply to him the words of the Roman poet, — 
" Justum et teiiacem propositi virum." 



Commemoration by Worcester Bar. 6,^ 



Hon. Peter C. Bacon and Hon. Henry Cii.M'in, who had 

long known Judge Allen at the Bar, on the Bencli, and in 

private life, also made brief remarks in accordance witli the 

spirit and the language of the resolutions and preceding 

■ addresses. 

Chief-Justice Brigham then addressed the Bar as follows : — 

CHIEF-JU.STICE BRIGIIAM'S ADDRESS. 

The resolutions of the Bar of this county, and the eloquent 
addresses in support of them, afford so ample a tribute to tiie 
character of Chief-Justice Allen, that I cannot iiope to add to 
their etlect, by saying more than to express my hearty ac- 
quiescence in them. My personal acquaintance with him 
becan with the first meetin<j of the justices of this court, a 
few months more than ten j'ears ago. He was then in the 
ripe maturity of his professional and judicial experience, and 
widely known, and as widely esteemed, to be one of the 
strongest and most upright of the public men of the Common- 
wealth. In the counsels and arrangements which attended 
the organization of the court, he had no need to assert his 
chief justiceship, for that his associates had been prepared 
by his reputation to regognize : and the}' deemed it the great 
good fortune of the court, in its origin, and their great good 
fortune in attempting untried duties and responsibilities, that 
the court's first Chief Justice, through his acknowledged cliar- 
acter, predisposed the Bar and the people of the Common- 
wealth to a favorable and encouraging reception of the new 



64 Mcinorial of Judge Charles Allen. 

court. In the distribution of the labor of the court, Chief- 
Justice Allen had not, at all times, the physical vigor required 
to conduct the terms assigned to him : but his valuable and 
strenofthenino- influence upon the business of the court, as 
director, adviser, and example, continued undiminished to the 
end of his service, and I trust will abide with it. as an inheri- 
tance from him. His junior associates can never forget how 
cordially his wise, delicate, and kindly suggestions were be- 
stowed upon them, or how assuring to their inexperience were 
his readv and decisive solutions of their ditficulties. As I 
knew him, he appeared to have a reserved power, adequate 
to any exigency wliich might encounter him in official, polit- 
ical, or social life ; a rare ability to await the ripe time for 
forming and expressing his convictions, an equal ability to 
tbrm them by his own strength, and to express them without 
solicitude as to the assent or dissent of his listeners or read- 
ers ; and a steadfastness in holding to these convictions, which 
was not atlected by the fact that he was solitary in them, 
and that popular sympathy or opinion were not with him or 
adverse to him. With these moral and intellectual character- 
istics, — the most complete self-reliance, and the most unfalter- 
ino- moral courage, — he exhibited no Quixotism, or readiness 
to rudely defy or assail public sentiment. He seemed to be 
content to allow small errors and fallacies to have their unmo- 
lested course to self-extinction : but ibr every great cause, 
threatened by corruption or lalse doctrine, he interposed at 
the flt moment, his strong, eloquent, and brave support. I 
can think of him as wrong in law or politics, but I could not 



Commeinoratioii by Worcester Bar. 



65 



think of him as capable of taking an equivocal or evasive 
position. In this county of his nativity, his influence, during 
a lontr and honored life exercised in functions the product of 
which was transitory, or unlikely to be preserved to poster- 
ity except by tradition, deserves, tVom his brethren of the 
Bar, an appropriate recognition and lasting memorial. The 
resolutions now offered are a just testimonial of his life and 
character, are well entitled to a place in the history of the 
administration of justice in this county, and, as such, will be 
put among its permanent records. 







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